Posted on 11/02/2006 3:54:37 PM PST by weegee
The rock critic Robert Christgau gave an interview last month to the Web site popmatters.com. Mr. Christgau, who was recently dismissed from The Village Voice after 37 years, talked a little bit about recent history. But he also talked about an old obsession of his: the decline of truly popular music.
“When I grew up, there was a monoculture,” he said. “Everybody listened to the same music on the radio. I miss monoculture. I think it’s good for people to have a shared experience.”
This week especially, the old musical monoculture seems more obsolete than ever. The annual CMJ Music Marathon started on Tuesday and runs through Saturday. Attendees can — or, more accurately, can’t — see more than 1,000 bands crammed onto stages in Manhattan and Brooklyn, along with the usual unsanctioned events. Even more than usual downtown Manhattan is full of bands most people have never heard of, hoping to emulate the success of other bands most people have never heard of.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There is a slice of just about everything that has gone before (artists relaunching their career or saying goodbye) and of what is happening today (new acts, underground legends, popstars, etc.). The faucet isn't letting much of anything drip out to the masses.
Music is product. Imagine if Elvis only sang on flatbed trucks (still sending the girls crazy) and there was no film of the crowds gathered at Woodstock.
The entertainment world is as square as it has ever been and "the man" just seeks to distract you from genuine music. People need to be more proactive in this world. Maybe if they start with music and movies, they'll eventually look closer at their politicians too.
BTTT
Playing music is like being on a softball team that pays enough money to keep you supplied in bats, uniforms, gloves, and pays for your gas to get to games. It's the way it was before recording was invented, and to where it is returning.
Fact is, playing music is fun and relatively easy. Why should one get paid to do what people used to do in their own homes all the time back before music could be recorded and marketed?
I'm glad the monoculture is going away. Maybe we will return to a time of unique sounds for each geographic location. I just did a gig last night in Pioneer Square (downtown Seattle). This particular band is Country. Across the street was hip-hop "disco". Something for everybody, so to speak.
It is good to have some shared experiences though.
There will never be a Beatles on Ed Sullivan moment again (but there can be another Man lands on the Moon or 9-11 attacks moment where everyone is watching the same thing unfold at the same time.
In the entertainment realm, the market is too fragmented. Even if you watch "The Simpsons", "24", or "The Sopranos", which are highly rated programs, some people don't have cable so they are "out of the loop". Even among those who do watch on tv, there is a "first broadcast" but often the program is repeated within a week anymore.
Take that to something like the Charlie Brown holiday specials, Turner bought them and now there isn't a single" don't miss it or you won't see it until next year" broadcast.
The shared experience is going away. Can't say if that is good or bad, just seeing it as another example of the fragmentation of our society.
With digital cable, there will be the ability to target advertising to specific viewers independently in each home depending on your demographic and viewing habits. At its most insideous, CBS would shield you from an ad that insults Reagan as they hype their mini-series or a political candidate would show you a different pitch on the issues. And would you want advertisers to access your personal information and viewing habits anyway? TiVo can already highlight programming you "might" be interested in.
But to agree with your original point, there will ALWAYS be music. Even if there was no money in it, after working all day, someone would still pull out his guitar.
Rural music (whether it was hillbilly, folk, gospel, or blues) wasn't made by people with dreams of getting rich off their songs.
You can tune into college radio for some idea of other rising artists (or older acts who are being rediscovered, there are some obscure musicians from the 1960s and 1970s who are more famous now than ever).
Problem is you must still "sift" or be patient as some programming directors INSIST that the DJs play some artists that don't mesh with everything else.
Well said. I will add a monkey wrench to this whole thing though: People like me who don't have TV, and don't listen to the radio.
As it was among some in the sixties.
"Tune in, turn on, drop out."
"The revolution will not be televised."
I'm unplugged from cable, don't have satellite radio, and live in a city (large as it is) that does not have a radio station dedicated to playing NEW rock and roll. When they persist in calling themselves "alternative rock" (alternative to WHAT other new rock station?) and playing 15 year old Nirvana and Pearl Jam cuts, they are just another "classic rock" station (in 1991 if you were still playing chart topping cuts from 1976 every hour, you would've been labelled an oldies station).
Media megastores are everywhere but I feel like the lonely Brit. in 1961 who was ordering blues records directly from Chess Records "back in the States". Then those records were passed around and formed the backbeat for the British Invasion. It shouldn't be this hard for acts to get exposure anymore.
Why DOESN'T BET cover "the blues"? What about black rock artits (old and new)? What about jazz artists? Why is everything house and hip hop these days? Nu-disco is all it is. Even when music channels divide up along racial lines there is no exposure. Same goes with Spanish language tv and radio (where is the visibility of the Rock en Espanol movement?).
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